THE LIFE of GIOVANNI MARIA NANINO in 1545', the Council of Trent Began Its Work
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THE LIFE OF GIOVANNI MARIA NANINO In 1545', the Council of Trent began its work. Paul III was pope in Rome, and the Society of Jesus was just beginning its efforts to stem the tide of the Protestant Reformation. It was the beginning of the activity known as the Catholic Reformation or the Counter Reformation, a phenomenon that would continue for nearly a hun dred years until the Treaty of Westphalia ( 1648) would bring an end to much of the religious struggle that dominated the sixteenth century. In Rome, the Basilica of Saint Peter was rising under Michel angelo's direction, and the rebuilding of the city after the sack of 15'27 was underway. The Middle Ages had come to an end in Rome, and the period of the Italian Renaissance was over. In Tivoli, at the edge of the Sabine hills overlooking the Roman Cam pagna, Cardinal Ippolito d'Este was about to begin the construction of his great villa ( 1 5' 49) . Pope Paul III was reconstructing Tivoli's fortifications and castle in case another invasion should occur. A short distance from Tivoli in the hill city of Palestrina, young Gio vanni Pierluigi was shortly to leave his position in the cathedral of his native town to move to Rome under the patronage of his friend, Pope Julius III ( 15 51). It was into this world of the Catholic Reformation that Gio vanni Maria N anino was born in 154 5. 1 Giuseppe Radiciotti says he was born in 15 44, because the record of his death states that he was sixty-three years old when he died in 1607.2 However, the words vel circa (or thereabouts) do not indicate any precision even in the mind of the chronicler. Franz X. Haberl states that Nanino was not born before 1 5' 4 5'. 3 Tivoli was the birthplace of Nanino.4 Many writers have argued in favor of the little town of Vallerano near Viterbo, but they all seem to have taken their information from Andrea Adami who wrote in 1711.5 The Vallerano theory is based on several manu scripts found in the Biblioteca del Liceo Musicale in Bologna which refer to Nanino as being from Vallerano.6 However, the weight of the evidence is in favor of Tivoli. The records of the Sistine Chapel often refer to him as a native of Tivoli, 7 even though he is also listed there as deriws Romanus, which is not intended as an indication of his birthplace.8 Raffaele Casimiri cites an entry in the Atti Capitolari of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore which men tions Nanino as being from Tivoli.9 Franz X. Haberl goes to great length to prove that Tivoli is the city of Nanino's birth by citing 46 the dedication of Paolo Agostini's Fourth Boo~ of Masses (1627), where the inscription presents the work to the people of V allerano, his birthplace. Agostini, who was choirmaster at Saint Peter_'s in Rome, mentions that his father-in-law and teacher, Giovanni Ber nadino N anino, was also born in Vallerano, and that his famous brother, Giovanni Maria, often rehearsed with the choir in the cathedral there.10 Haberl argues that if Giovanni Maria had been born in V allerano Agostini, who was seeking every means to praise his town, would surely have mentioned that fact too.u Probably the Nanino family came originally from Viterbo. They moved to Tivoli for some reason and then returned to the region of Viterbo, settling in Vallerano where Giovanni Bernadino was born and where Gio vanni Maria sang as a putto cantore in the cathedral there.12 Haberl has a thesis, which he is at considerable pains to prove, that Giovanni Bernadino was a nephew of Giovanni Maria, and not his younger brother.13 He bases his discussion on a manuscript in Bologna, 14 and on his own idea that two sons in the same family would not be called by the same name, Giovanni.'" Other manu scripts in the Bologna collection, however, call Giovanni Bernadino the younger brother of Giovanni Maria, 16 and as Radiciotti points out, Haberl apparently did not know the first book of madrigals pub lished by Giovanni Bernadino, printed by Gardano at Venice in 1586, where the title page carries the name of the composer who is identified as "fratello et discepolo di Giovanni Maria Nanino."'7 Actually the problem of nephew or younger brother was old long before Haberl took it up. Dr. Burney refers to it a hundred years before, when he says: "Giov. Bernadino Nanino, a younger brother of Maria, according to Walther, but called by P. Martini, his nephew."18 The oldest source on Nanino, a letter written by Antimo Liberati to Ovidio Porsapegi in 168 5, 19 refers to Giovanni Bernadino as the "fratello minore" of Giovanni Maria. 20 Very likely it was Padre Martini with whom the problem arose. 21 Nothing is known of the boyhood of Nanino, other than that he lived in Vallerano and sang in the Cathedral choir. It can be presumed that he received the usual education of the period with all the influences that the Renaissance interest in learning brought to bear on it. He must have learned the rudiments of music in the choir, and a study of Latin was undoubtedly a part of his curriculum. Both disciplines were to be of vital importance to him in his life's work. Somewhere in his teens Nanino seems to have become a student of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who was choirmaster at the 47 Lateran basilica from 15'55 until 1558, at Santa Maria Maggiore from 15'61 until 15'67, and at the Vatican basilica from 1571 until his death. 22 That Nanino was a student of Palestrina seems evident from his style and his contrapuntal technique,23 but the issue is com· plicated by the use of the term condiscepolo in Antimo Liberati's letter when he describes the relationship between Palestrina and Nanino. 24 He implies that the two were fellow students at a school of music in Rome said to have been operated by a Flemish master named Gaudio Mell. The same idea in almost the same words is found in the manuscript history of the Sistine choir written by Matteo Fornari, 25 and Dr. Burney presents a similar discussion. 26 That Gaudio Mell was Palestrina's teacher depends solely on Antimo Liberati, and Giuseppa Baini says that Liberati erred in writing Gaudio Mell when it should have been Claudio Goudimel. 27 Accord ing to another theory Liberati's description of Mell as a Flemish musician of great talent and a graceful and polished style, points rather to Arcadelt, who was a member of the Sistine choir from 1540 to 1549. The substitution of the name Gaudio Mell for Arcadelt can be accounted for by the fact that Claudio Goudimel, although never in Rome, had edited a volume of compositions by Arcadelt. Liberati may have confused the two. The transfer from Goudimel to Gaudio Mellis easily explained. 28 Still another theory is advanced by Casimiri, who feels that the long tradition of a master whose name ended with the syllable "el" should contain some truth. He therefore suggests that Palestrina's teacher was Firmin Le Bel, who was at Santa Maria Maggire as choirmaster beginning in 1 541. 29 This same opinion is given by Zoe Kendrick Pyne in his life of Palestrina. 30 That Palestrina studied with a master named Gaudio Mell from 15 40 to 1545 is thus not well established to say the least. That Nanino was a fellow student of Palestrina is similarly unlikely, if only from the fact that their ages were separated by twenty years. Further, the term condiscepolo, while it can mean a fellow student in the sense that two persons studied together under a single teacher, might also have the meaning that two persons, separated by time or distance, might both be interested in the same subject and thus be fellow students. Nanino and Palestrina were both students of the same style of contrapuntal composition; in this sense they were condiscepoli. It might also be possible to consider this term to mean a colleague, since N anino and Palestrina were associated as music teachers in Rome. Baini wrote that Nanino was a confidente of Palestrina and a friend of Vittoria,31 but Casimiri points out that the documents, unfortunately show this to be untrue.32 )j; 48 In 1567, Palestrina left the position of maestro di cappella at Santa Maria Maggiore, and in 1571 he became choirmaster at the Cappella Giulia in Saint Peter's.33 He was succeeded in the Cappella Liberiana at Santa Maria Maggiore by Nanino, whom he may have recommended for the position. Whether he took over as soon as Palestrina left is not clear from the records of the basilica, but Casimiri suggests that it was probably in 1567.u Baini, on the other hand, says that Nanino began at Santa Maria Maggiore in April of 1571.35 Haberl agrees with him and says that this is confirmed by the archives of the basilica. 36 However, I found no records in the archives of Santa Maria Maggiore for the years from 1563 until 1572, an observation that Casimiri also makes. 37 Whether it was 1567 or 1571, Nanino was still a very young man to attain the honored position of choirmaster at one of the four major basilicas of Rome.38 The archives of the Cappella Liberiana have records of payments made to Nanino as maestro di cappella for the years 1572 and 1573.39 His salary was sixteen scudi.